Present and future contribution of geophysics to the Prevention through Design and quality management approaches for tunneling operations

Tunnels should be constructed, maintained and used without neglecting the basic principal of occupational health and safety, environmental protection and economic efficiency. This involves a prevention through design approach from the very first steps of the project, and a careful risk management during the tunneling operations, both based on the identification and evaluation of a number of input parameters. However, owing to the peculiarities of tunneling operations, many of these parameters are difficult to forecast and assess with sufficient detail. This problem can dramatically affect the quality of the result, and can cause accidents, environmental pollution and work stoppages, with consequent economic losses. The paper stresses the advantages of further implementation of near surface geophysics in tunneling design, construction and maintenance from an economic point of view. Moreover, it provides a comparison data on the economic losses owing to a not exhaustive knowledge of the rock characteristics vs the investments in the up-to-date geophysical investigations necessary to ensure a better quality of the design input data.